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Wicked Urban Problems In The News

Question

Assignment Overview

Wicked urban problems are all around us. They also appear in the news…often surrounded by controversy. This assignment will require you to conduct an analysis of the news to identify examples of “wicked” urban problems that are making headlines.

Completing the Essay

Search the news for articles addressing urban issues that fit the four criteria for “wicked” problems discussed in class. Identify three different wicked urban issues, with at least one news source per issue.

Write an essay that clearly addresses the following for each of the three wicked problems you identified:

How easily can the problem be defined?

How easily can the cause(s) of the problem be identified?

How easily can a solution to the problem be identified?

What other issues are also linked to the problem?

Your written essay should be roughly two single-spaced pages in length, and should be written in essay format (i.e. include an introductory and concluding paragraph, and content paragraphs consisting of well-structured complete sentences).

All essays should reflect your own individual work. Direct quotes must be cited properly using a consistent citation style throughout. Be sure to include a list of the 3 (minimum) news sources used to complete the assignment. Your essay should be thoroughly proofread for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Essays containing excessive proofreading errors will not be accepted for credit.

Solution

The current rapid rate of urbanization that is being experienced globally has brought about many problems regarding the distribution of people as well as resources and the usage and consumption of land. There are some regions, however, where urban area has grown much faster than the amount population resulting in less dense and more efficient allocation of land. There are however some sprawling cities that are gradually harder to deal with as a consequence of an increasing population making them less sustainable in the future. These have led to overwhelming wicked urban issues. Among them are congestion, infrastructure issues, pollution as well as social issues. In fact, these problems are of relevance as a consequence of a lack of urban planning strategies. As a consequence, the population growth results in urban sprawl. Residents start spilling from the core municipalities to occupy areas in urban centers that lack accompanying services and necessary infrastructure. This collectively tends to have adverse effects on the urban economy as well as the overall efficiency of the region in the city.

One of the wicked urban issues is the problem of inadequate housing (Brown). Major global cities have been facing the issue of increasing populations at a faster rate than the creation of new housing. For example, Berlin is one of the major cities which has been hit hard by this problem. An estimated forty thousand new residents have been moving into the city. However, less than eight thousand housing units were constructed through 2014 which has created a lot of housing pressure in Berlin (Brown). The population is expected to double this year and, therefore, the situation is likely to get worse.